


The language of paper flowers (and goodbyes that last forever)

by Not_Crazy_Just_a_Fangirl



Series: The Heart of a Con [5]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-25
Updated: 2014-05-25
Packaged: 2018-01-26 12:59:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1689167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_Crazy_Just_a_Fangirl/pseuds/Not_Crazy_Just_a_Fangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He is what they made him. Alex, Kate, his father, Mozzie. They all had a hand in making him who he is today. And you don't just forget about that.</p>
<p>or,</p>
<p>Four looks into the life of Neal Caffery. Drabble style.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The language of paper flowers (and goodbyes that last forever)

## Goodbyes in a bottle:

He got caught. And he found it bittersweet, the only way to see Kate again, to protect her, was to get away. And he's too good to let them see how hurt and heartbroken he is, so he laughs. He smiles, and makes little coded promises, and doesn't run because he's tired of playing a cat and mouse game that's rigged by his own designs to make him lose. Because there's a difference between slipping through cracks and slipping on thin ice. One gets you out, and one gets you too far in. All he wanted was a happy ending, four years go by and he's left wondering, if a bottle can really mean goodbye. It's a classic (Kate always loved the classics) treasure maps, and goodbyes, and love letters long since lost at sea found in a bottle. But it's empty, and the papers faded and worn from years gone by of empty promises. But he's still chasing after the girl who played him, destined to break his heart. Because it's the oldest trick to make the plane blow up as you get away. Mozzie warned him (but he never listens) and he ends up wondering if that bottle really meant goodbye. Because the one time he lets his mask slip, and he starts to believe in happy endings, is when the fairytale ends. And he's left pretending he doesn't care all over again. A smile and a promise (of secrets and revenge, not of coming home) and he stares at the sky and sees the second star on the right and wishes more than ever fairytales could come true. But the thing about fairytales is the villain always gets a broken heart... Even when he tries to make things right...

## Hand shakes:

He's fifteen when he first meets Mozzie. A street kid who caught the eye of a conman because of a card trick. Mozzie holds his hand out to Neal, a partnership, a friendship. Neal follows him, he doen't take his hand. He's 18 when he starts working for Alder and meets Kate, and Alex. He holds his hand out for Kate, she breaks his heart. He doesn't sell his heart after that. He's on the run looking for Kate (can't find her, he's losing it) when Alex shows up again (comes and goes like a shadow whenever Kate's not around) she's about to jump, he holds his hand out again, it saves her life. She disappears, and Kate comes back, and he's behind bars and he laughs because he must be cursed, every time he tries to trust he gets burned. He's 25, freshly escaped (for Kate, the girl forever destined to be running away. They say he's not good for her, well she's no good for him) sitting on the floor of a grimey, abandoned apartment down in Brooklyn, bottle in his hands and fist in his hair, tracing patterns in the dust on the ground. And he's got nothing left so he slips on the mask and smiles up at agent Burke and jokes, says he knows he's going back, that he doesn't care. He makes a deal, because he's got nothing left and Mozzie will come up with something and if it fails then all he really wants is to get his name in the history books. Burke holds his hand out for the kid and Neal smiles because he's cursed and he takes his hand just because the risks makes it fun. But Kate's gone, Mozzie trusts a little more, Alex tries to stay and visit normally, he's got an anklet, his deal worked and Burke made him his partner. He's one of the good guys (like he wanted to be as a kid), he's still waiting on that curse to tear his heart out all over again...

## Mirror Image (smoke and colored lights can only hide for so long)

Pale skin, black hair, blue eyes. Mirror image of his father. Charming smile, quick fingers, and an artists eye. Skills and tricks bred through his DNA. HIs father was a dirty cop, and bad blood runs deep. Lies built on lies will surely make you fall and break, but to which side of the line. He's always danced on the grey areas. But when you change the lights (all smoke and mirrors right?) he's a skinny little kid from St. Louis out on the streets of Brooklyn. Odd jobs and no family. always running away. Bruises and scars but never lets anyone help, but he doesn't hurt people. Change the colors (lights can do that too) and he's a conman, just like his father (all smoke and mirror again). But he's a little to wild and to to attached and full of heart. He loves and lies and has too much emotion, but he can fake it just as well. Clear the smoke (it messes with your head you see) and he's working for the other side, same thing, same heart, same love, same art skills, but for the good guys (an aklet's a small price to pay for truth). He's a mirror image, nothing but a trick with some small reality. Everyone else sees him with different eyes. He's still dancing in grey areas, he thinks...

## A story told of paper flowers

He's always loved art. Made paintings and sketches all the time as a kid. Paper shapes and comics too. So years later he cons a congirl and she slips a paper flower into his pocket, with five little words written inside "you're good, but i'm better" and he knows it's just a game, he's going to win. So flowers become a code and messages become their methods. A flowers in a wallet, left in the mail box. Skirting around, forever living off little words and paper shapes. It's a habit he picks up, making those shapes. He can make birds, and animals, shapes, and letters. Flowers are forever his favorite. Alex finds out he's winning, she comes around and face to face they talk. A heist is planned, a music box learned of, paper flowers left behind each time. Each time he kisses her she finds a pink flower slipped into her bag with a single word "stay" and each time she runs again. Because in this life you don't get to be attached, she watched his heart break as he broke her's. They wear their flowers like hearts on a sleeve. No one gets to win this game, but it's the only thing that keeps them sane... "A story of flowers dies and wilts as it ages, paper flowers live forever between pages, one just might need to know the stories told between them to read it" it's another Mozzie quotes from who knows where, he thinks it sums them up. Paper flowers mean promises and secrets and hope for a happy ending. It's their own fairytale, ending it, giving it a happy ending is like signing your own death sentence... Because when their story ends, so do they...


End file.
